THORNY ISSUES: School aid, migrant costs, rent control, prison closings, housing subsidies in delayed $233 billion NYS budget

ABOVE: Acting Supt. K. Veronica Smith speaks at a March 1, 2024 rally against state financial-aid cuts to Mount Vernon schools. Hers was one of half the districts in NY state to receive less funding this year. PHOTO: Tania Savayan/The Journal News

State lawmakers must vote on a series of bills [by tomorrow] to enact the budget once a deal is struck. Here are some of the pieces to watch as negotiators work toward an agreement:

By Chris McKenna | The Journal News

New York leaders have bought a few more days to enact a new state budget as they continue closed-door talks to resolve disputes over education and health-care spending and a knot of housing-related issues.

Negotiators now have until Thursday [April 11] to reach a deal under a budget extension lawmakers approved on Sunday and Monday to keep the state government operating.

It was the third extension so far to stretch the usual March 31 budget deadline, and it could be followed by another.

Last year, three-way talks among Gov. Kathy Hochul and leaders of the state Senate and Assembly dragged into May, beset by pitched battles over her housing plans and changes in the state’s bail rules.

No repeat is expected this time as they seek to finalize a version of the $233 billion plan the Democratic governor introduced in January.

“The end is near,” Hochul optimistically told reporters in a short, impromptu update on the talks last Thursday.

Lawmakers must vote on a series of bills to enact the budget once a deal is struck. Here are some of the pieces to watch as negotiators work toward an agreement:

School aid cuts appear to be off the table

Hochul had proposed school aid changes that included ending a practice that has prevented any district from getting less funding than it got the previous year.

Eliminating the “hold harmless” provision would have resulted in cuts for half of all districts, which set off a firestorm of opposition.

Lawmakers, facing re-election this year, firmly rejected the idea, and even countered it with 3% minimum aid increases in their own budget plans. But they also supported reviewing and revising a funding formula that hasn’t changed since it was set in 2007.

In remarks to reporters last week, Hochul signaled a temporary retreat on the cuts — while defending them as appropriate for districts where enrollment has plunged or that are holding excessive reserve funds.

But rather than push for reductions this year, Hochul said the aid formula will be studied further so it can be updated for next year’s budget.

“We talked about putting a process in place so by this time next year — giving everybody the notice and warning that they all asked for — that there will be a different formula,” she said.

How that is done and how long it will take may be another debate.

The New York State School Boards Association, one of the groups that opposed Hochul’s proposed changes in how aid is distributed, supports updating the formula and has suggested doing so for several years.

But it wants a “true, objective study,” with no predetermined changes, Brian Fessler, the association’s director of governmental relations, told the USA Today Network in an interview on Monday.

“We want it to be thoughtful and deliberative,” he said.

Fessler also questioned whether that work could be completed in time for next year’s budget, given how long it will take at the outset simply to solicit prospective consultants and hire one to conduct the study. He called Hochul’s timeframe “unrealistic.”

Will NY cap rent increases?

Also under negotiation are new tenant protections that could effectively set a statewide limit on apartment rent increases, though perhaps with some flexibility on where it would apply.

They’re part of a web of housing issues that must be resolved together and make up one of the thorniest elements in the negotiations.

Renter advocates have sought the new protections for five years through a state bill known as Good Cause Eviction, which would force many landlords to justify rent increases greater than 3% and would apply to 1.6 million households, according to the group Housing Justice for All.

Still unknown are how those bill terms may shift over the course of negotiations.

Among the potential changes: setting the cap higher than 3%, and letting municipalities outside of New York City choose whether to comply with the rent and eviction standards, either by opting in or opting out.

Several cities, including Newburgh and Poughkeepsie, had passed local rules similar to those in the Good Cause Eviction bill, only for courts to overturn them for wading improperly into policy matters that must be dealt with at the state level.

Those rulings led supporters to renew their focus on passing legislation in Albany.

Up to five prisons may close

New York already has closed more than two dozen prisons since 2009 as inmate numbers have steadily dropped. As many as five more could be shuttered under the budget now being finalized, reducing the total to 39.

Part of the debate over Hochul’s proposal has been how much time hundreds of correction officers and other employees working at each site would be given to prepare for transfers to other prisons or the loss of their jobs.

Hochul has proposed giving 90 days’ notice; the Senate wants to double that timeframe to 180 days. (The Assembly opposed the closures altogether).

PHOTO: Downstate Correctional Facility. Patrick Oehler/Poughkeepsie Journal

Hochul’s plan didn’t identify which facilities the state would shut. The Hudson Valley has one of the state’s highest concentrations of prisons with a dozen dotted across the region, including four in Ulster County and three in Westchester.

Past waves of closures included facilities in Orange and Dutchess counties.

Shoplifting/personal assault crackdown

Hochul included in her budget a set of steps to combat retail theft and the organized crime rings responsible for much of it. Some ideas were uncontroversial, such as forming a special State Police unit to investigate and root out those rings, and offering stores tax credits to help pay for security expenses.

But one piece to watch in the final budget is Hochul’s plan to impose more severe sentences for shoplifters convicted of assaulting store workers.

Both the Senate and Assembly opposed the idea, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has questioned whether it would be effective in deterring store thefts.

Tax break to spur NYC housing

Another strand of the housing web is renewing in modified form an expired tax break that had helped fuel construction of affordable apartments in New York City, by trimming property taxes for developers who build them.

Restoring that tax abatement was a key element of Hochul’s failed push last year to accelerate housing growth throughout New York.

The most controversial parts of her 2023 plan were growth mandates for every community and required zoning for dense housing around suburban train stations.

Hochul’s revised strategy this year focuses mostly on New York City. Her two modest ideas to spur new homes in the rest of the state: channeling grants to communities that meet new housing goals, and setting aside unused state properties for housing construction. ##

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

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